This blog started with a series of online audio-conference seminars to celebrate the International Year of Languages in 2008. Many people who care about languages teaching and learning in Australia interacted online. The blog is now broader reflections about language and languages in life. Access archives by scrolling down the page. Useful pro-languages quotations at lower left. Phillip Mahnken, Sunshine Coast, Australia

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Every teacher has students who just do everything you could hope for. I'm not talking about just those who become language teachers (would I wish that on them?) I'm talking about those who clearly love the language, and all it can bring them, who catch on, get the bug, persist, pursue it and use it in all sorts of professional or personal paths. Chelsea is one, now working for a development agency. Kiah now living in Japan is another, a language addict who studied both Indonesian and Japanese to advanced levels, worked and struggled in poverty as a student, got herself to both countries. And like me, it puzzles and concerns her that Australians in their droves turn off and turn away from study of other languages. Read Kiah's blog post in Japanese if you can (google translate does a hopeless job on rendering it in English. See, we need humans to learn each other's languages.) Kiah has translated it into English for us.Australia's Big Problem.
Recently I haven’t written a blog, so I thought I would write a blog about a topic that’s important to me today.
Recently I have been emailing my Indonesian professor from when I was a university student about ‘the importance of studying foreign languages.’ The number of students in Australia studying foreign languages is decreasing rapidly. There are too few language teachers, and interest in foreign languages is also being lost.
‘Why should I study foreign languages? Everyone should just speak English!’ I have met many Australians who ask these questions.
Why has this type of thinking sprung up? Is it because Australia is separated from other countries? Is it because English is the easiest language to learn? (This is definitely untrue. People who think this have clearly never studied English as a second language.) Why is the study of foreign languages so hated?
When I was in primary school (year 4 I believe) I first experienced studying a foreign language. At my primary school, students had to study Indonesian from year 4 to year 7. The first thing I learnt was:

Siapa nama Anda?
Nama saya Haruko.

(What is your name?
My name is Haruko)
Just six words, and I had already fallen in love with foreign languages. The reason why was because, by using completely different words, I could still express the same meaning. To a fourth grade me, that was cool!
From that day till now, I still love studying foreign languages. When I started high school, I continued studying Indonesian but I started wanting to learn another language. At my school library I found a Japanese textbook and started teaching myself. Studying Japanese was fun, so when I started university I made Japanese and Indonesian my majors. Thanks to studying foreign languages, when I was in university, I was able to do student exchanges to universities in both Japan and Indonesia.
Thanks to studying foreign languages, I have made many friends, I have experienced other cultures, and have many good memories. If I only spoke English, I don’t think I would have been able to experience the things I have.
***
Research and papers on the advantages of learning foreign languages have been done, yet there are still Australian youth who say ‘I don’t want to study languages.’ It’s not only the fault of their attitudes. As there aren’t many language teachers in Australia, there isn’t consistency in the languages taught.
Example: My primary school taught Indonesian. The closest high school to my primary school also taught Indonesian. However, the primary schools in the next district taught Japanese and Chinese, therefore when those students began at our high school, they suddenly had to study year 8 Indonesian. Many students dropped Indonesian because it was too difficult. When I started high school there were over 100 students (in year 8) who were studying Indonesian. By the time I graduated high school, there were only five students (including myself) still studying Indonesian.
This problem is a nation-wide problem. This year the Australian Government released the ‘White Paper.’ In it is written that from now they will have Asian languages studied in schools. In particular: Japanese, Indonesian, Hindi and Chinese.
These four languages are important to Australia. However, because there are few language teachers and students’ attitudes towards languages are so poor, how are they going to properly teach these languages?
As far as I know, there are no schools teaching Hindi. Of course there are people who speak Hindi, so they can become teachers, but it will take time. The government wants students to start studying languages as soon as possible, but because it will take time, how will they fix the current problems? How will they get students to study languages to an advanced level? We need to answer these kinds of questions.
(I apologize for this blog post being so long. I will finish here and next time I’ll write about my attitudes towards foreign languages, my memories and what I get out of it.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Ellen: How did you learn English? You taught yourself English, right?
Jacky Chan: Yes.
Ellen: How did you learn?
Jacky Chan: By the song!
Ellen: What song?
Jacky Chan: Oh, all kind of song. Before, I tried to listen, I watch TV but I cannot repeat. So I buy cassette, oh, I'm talking about long time ago, no DVD, CD, cassette, the cassette, the country song! You know like Willie Nelson, so and so. And when you hear the song: [sings] "You are always on my mind, you are always on my mind." [audience claps.] Then, oh! Then I can talk to the girls, you know.
Ellen: Right, and when we come back, you are actually a very popular singer, and uh, like, one of your songs was downloaded 500 million times! So, when we come back, Jacky's going to sing for us.Jackie Chan Ellen DeGeneres Interview 8/01/2010 (Full)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZxPKOzl6Q8
Comment on YouTube page:
Jackie Talking: *accent*
Jackie﻿ Singing: *no accent*

“Translation is not a matter of words only: it is a matter of making intelligible a whole culture“ - Anthony Burgess. [Found on LinkedIn Language Learning group]

"If you talk in his language, that goes to the heart."

And most wonderful of all are words, and how they make friends one with another, being oft associated, until not even obituary notices them do part. O.Henry, Calloway's Code

When you lose a language, you lose a culture, intellectual wealth, a work of art. It's like dropping a bomb on a museum, the Louvre." Comment by the late Kenneth Hale, cited in The Economist (November 3,2001).

LANGUAGE, n. The music with which we charm the serpents guarding another's treasure. - Ambrose Bierce

Dance is the mother of all languages." R.G. Collingwood, British philosopher and historian.

The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page. St Augustine (quoted at photographer Kerin Burford's beautiful Travel Gallery)

Annie Robertson, who teaches Japanese and TESOL, sent a favourite quote:
"Language is a steed that carries one into a far country."

American children's writer Russell Hoban, born in 1925, once said that language is an archeological vehicle, full of the remnants of dead and living pasts, lost and buried civilisations and technologies. The language we speak is a whole palimpsest of human effort and history. [in article by Ghilad Zuckermann, 26 August 2009 Aboriginal languages deserve revival]

http://www.blogger.com/home
From a World Poetry Day site in the Philippines:
"Poetry is the impish attempt to paint the color of the wind." -- Maxwell Bodenheim.

Mark Twain: "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

The power, the efficiency and the beauty of all things are functions of their difference. Attributed to Frieda M. Holt.

"Be the change you want to see in the world." Mahatma Gandhi

Quote from artist Michael Leunig:-
"Love one another and you will be happy. It is as simple, and as difficult, as that"
put by the school chaplain in the school newsletter, Lilydale , Tasmania

Dave Nutting spotted this in the Age newspaper. Passed on by by Catherine Gosling.
“He’s got planes, trains, untold billions and even a spaceship. So is there anything Richard Branson [owner of Virgin-brand companies] can’t get his hands on? Well, yes actually.”
“I wonder if there is anything Branson regrets not having done.”
“I’d love to be able to speak languages,
he says.”
From: What’s not to smile about, by Mark Dapin, Good Weekend, August 16th, 2008

Australian General Peter Cosgrove:
"I unequivocally endorse the sentiment, expressed by the eminent American historian Henry Adams, that “A teacher affects eternity; they can never tell where their influence stops.” Australian General Peter Cosgrove AC, MC. in address to the Ausralian Principals Association. Melbourne 30 May 2002.

Also from Gen. P. Cosgrove: "I cannot imagine a future in which people of all cultures and nations are not increasingly connected by ties of travel commerce and migration. [...] Language skills and cultural sensitivity will be the new currency of this world order. Along with computer literacy they will provide the keys to participation in the global economy.[...] Our future prosperity and security will depend on our ability to understand these cultures and to build bridges to the citizens of these nations and all our immediate neighbours."

"Prejudice is the ultimate form of human ignorance."

"One key deficiency in our capabilities in East Timor was the lack of language skills across the spectrum. We needed more linguists to provide liaison with our Coalition partners. And just as importantly there were more misunderstandings based on cultural differences than any of us could have anticipated, or would have desired."

"Commercial links, alone, will never render war unthinkable. What will, however, are mutual understanding and respect and the banishing of prejudice."

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

from The Lord of the Rings

"Another fairy dies every time someone says foreign languages are a waste of time." Michelle S, graduate of USC, now in Dept of Defence.

"In a world which is becoming smaller and more of a 'Global Community', understanding and tolerance are essential for a productive and peaceful future. The best way for students to gain an insight into another nation and its culture is through the study of its language and literature. For this reason all Principals must ensure that the study of Languages is an integral part of their school's curriculum."

"This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple. The philosophy is kindness." [Dalai Lama, by way of Eve-Marie Lainchbury]

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.
Thomas Paine, English-born supporter of the American Revolution. [by way of Rupert Macgregor of ACSSO]

Professor Joe Camilleri, in opening the 2007 National Seminar on Languages Education (Melbourne, November 2007), spoke of language as being : at the heart of all human learning; the mirror of all human development; the link between the biological and the cultural; the compass of culture; and the mediation between I and Thou [by way of Michael Traynor in Catholic Education, ACT and NSW]

"Language is consciousness." “A language reflects a singular nature of a people speaking it.” “Language is identity.” "It’s going to give them a sense of self, to know themselves. The fact that they’re speaking the language is empowerment in itself.” Quotes from various speakers in a New York times article on preserving the 800 disappearing languages found among migrants in New York: Listening to (and Saving) the World’s Languages

“The poet, by composing poems, uses a language
that is neither dead nor living, that few people speak, and few people understand … We are the servants of an unknown force that lives within us, manipulates us, and dictates this language to us.”~Jean Cocteau. >> [swiped from Karen Carter's Facebook.]

Any word over ten letters in English is the same word in French. Fact. Sloan Crosby, satirist, author.